Handheld scanner for material analysis
The NeoSpectra-Scanner is built around the company’s NeoSpectra spectral sensor technology, with a wide spectral range for many applications. The scanner, says the company, is expected to help drive on-site material analysis into a broad range of industries.
“We have seen a high degree of interest in handheld material analysis from several key industries,” says Dr. Bassam Sadaany, business unit manager, Si-Ware Systems. “They wanted to avoid the lag time of sending samples to a lab and also wanted their teams to have an out-of-the-box and cost-effective solution that didn’t require hours of development or calibration time. We developed the NeoSpectra-Scanner to enable both resellers and in-house teams to easily and quickly develop critical applications for almost any field or industrial environment.”
The scanner enables users to add on-site intelligence in their operations, instantly identifying and quantifying composition of materials used in farming, food processing, and industry. The device features a streamlined five-step application development designed to enable users to quickly deploy the tool to the field for their market of choice.
The NeoSpectra core technology is already in use in portable soil analysis and animal feed scanning, and in health and beauty applications such as hair analysis at professional salons. Its use in a handheld format, says the company, could find applications in life science and food safety industries, as well as cannabis – where spectroscopy can help with both soil and product analysis – and in sorting of plastic waste.
In addition to being smaller, lighter, and more hardware- and software-ready than other portable scanners on the market, says the company, the NeoSpectra-Scanner has a large spot size (up to 10 mm) for measuring non-homogenous materials such as grains and soils. It is also ruggedized for in-field use, conforming to IP65 protection standards.
The device is designed not only for point-and shoot-capability but also to rest on flat surfaces for above-scanner sampling, or for below-scanner sampling from a suspended position. It works with any Bluetooth-enabled device to transfer information.
“Comparable solutions on the market have been much bulkier and costlier (tens of thousands of dollars), inhibiting mass adoption,” says Scott Smyser, executive vice president, Si-Ware Systems. “Our small and low-cost spectral sensor at the core of the scanner allows us to offer the first cost-effective material analysis tool for broad use anywhere, any time.”
Setting up the device for use requires only independent characterization of materials, measurement of the materials with the scanner, and developing analysis models that correlate the two. The user develops the custom user application and display for smartphone, mobile device, or laptop.
The plug-and-play development package includes the scanner, reference material, data collection software and a software development kit. The Neospectra-Scanner runs on two 18650 batteries and when fully charged can execute more than 1000 scans.
NeoSpectra-Scanner prototypes for early adopters will be available in October, with full commercial availability in Q1 2020.
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